RECRUITING RULE CHANGE IMPACTS LONGHORNS
By mark rogers
February 15, 2010
The head coach at an NCAA FBS school can only make one off-campus visit per year (and it can't be during the spring evaluation period - a critical time in recruiting). The assistants can make as many as they want.
In my opinion, the spirit of the rule is to try and level the playing field between some of the more aggressive head coaches and everybody else.
If all the coaches had to keep up with guys like Urban Meyer, Mack Brown, Nick Saban and Lane Kiffin, no FBS head coaches would have a life.
UT defensive coordinator Will Muschamp is the Longhorns' coach-in-waiting and can now only make one off-campus visit. This is bad for Texas because Muschamp is one of the most aggressive and ferocious recruiters in all of college football.
Texas has come out recently and said it feels singled out by the new rule since they and Maryland are the only schools with a publicly designated coach-in-waiting.
The rule makes me scratch my head a little bit.
I don't think schools announce a coach-in-waiting to try and boost recruiting or get an unfair advantage. I think they do it to limit coaching controversy distractions and give the coach-in-waiting a little job security. If Texas doesn't publicly designate Muschamp as the next UT head coach, then he'll get courted by a ton of good programs every off season.
It just sort of nips all those distractions and all that controversy in the bud.
But this issue brings up another point: high school football players choosing coaches instead of schools and programs.
It happens every year. It will continue happening every year until the end of time.
18-year-old kids (emphasis on the word "kids") get wooed by sweet-talking, charismatic, middle-aged men that promise them the world.
Come to our university and you'll be a starter on day 1. We'll get you a degree and send you to the NFL (have to throw the thing in about the degree for mom and dad).
The kid chooses to go play for Coach Suave. Signs all the papers. Commits the next four or five years of his life to this guy...then Coach Suave takes another job and leaves all those kids he promised the world to in the dust. It happens. That's life.
The rules state that if a player wants to transfer and go play at Coach Suave's new school, he has to sit out a year. The rule is to discourage kids from treating schools like professional franchises and keep the NCAA from free agency.
I love the rule.
Kids should not go play for a school or program solely because of who the coach is. They should factor in the place, the academics, the facilities, etc. They should go into it thinking that if Coach Suave ever leaves, they would want to continue playing for the program.
If I was a high school recruit, that's what I would do. Why? Because I'm almost 30 and know that in business, you should always plan for the worst case scenario when dealing with signed pieces of paper.
But most kids don't have that mentality and, unless they have some great guidance and mentors in their lives, will continue making life decisions based on feelings generated by some of the best salesmen the world has to offer...college football coaches.
Kind of got of track, but the point is, I think the new rule is a little silly. Head coaches-in-waiting are just that...waiting. They're still assistant coaches and need to fulfill the duties they signed up to fulfill.
Muschamp is the defensive coordinator and one of the best recruiters in the country. He should be able to perform the job he was hired to do.
Whether he's the coach-in-waiting or not.
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